Day 30 // Procedure Successful!

Hi all,

JoAnne's hip procedure went well! See below for our conversation with her surgeon, Dr. Madey (he's not super chatty and I happen to be a somewhat speedy typist):

(Dr. Madey saunters up in scrubs and grabs a chair, falling into it effortlessly. He's tall, blonde and tan, if you didn't happen to know)

Han/Jani/Carol- (quickly shuffling papers and wiping our coffee corners) "Hi, there! How did it go?"

Dr. Madey- (with deadpan confidence) "The wound looks real good."

H/J/C- (smiling at each other, releived) "Wow, that's so great to hear!"

Dr. Madey- (with deadpan confidence) "Like, 1000x better than it's ever looked."

H/J/C- (still smiling) "Wow, we like those numbers. So, it's all, like, closed up?"

Dr. Madey- "We put a wound vac on the hip- a skin vac- so her wound is closed, but the wound vac sticks on the outside to help it heal until it gets to that point." 

H/J/C- (in silence, processing what he's saying and trying not to interrupt him like we tend to do)

Dr. Madey- (after awkward beat) "She'll be hooked up to the wound vac machine... we got it all sealed up."

H/J/C- (still silence- it's killing us, but damn, we shall hear the man out!)

Dr. Madey- (after a few beats, continues) "The last few times we haven't cut out much dead or infected tissue at all, just cleaning. So the procedures haven't been hard very on her body."

H/J/C- "Great! So is that the last of the surgeries, then?"

Dr. Madey- "We'll go back on Monday to change the wound vac... We may do it multiple times, or it may be closed by then."

H/J/C- (all nodding in agreement) "Fantastic!" (then trailing off, eyebrows raised, should there be more information)

(Dr. Madey stares at us, then turns and gets up)

H/J/C- "Thank you, Dr. Madey!"
(Dr. Madey nods thoughtfully and then saunters off)

The End

We saw JoAnne's wound vac when she came back from surgery, and it's rather unremarkable- a small (1"ish) line of dark foam material that is filling the space between the sutures of her wound all around her hip. The wound vac is used when pulling the skin together to close would be premature, as more draining needs to occur to prevent infection and promote healing, (furthermore, we hear that the skin needs to be healthy enough to attempt to close on it's own). The wound vac will encourage the skin to close up, but will also be removable to clean the openings and allow for a draining tube. Hopefully that makes sense? Her abdomen has a similar wound vac, so all this made some sense to us. The muscle fascia is technically closed, but the skin is still a bit open, and the wound vac is the final step or sorts in aiding and encouraging the wound's healing. We are so confident in and grateful for her amazing surgeons, attendings and nurses!

More tomorrow, guys. JoAnne looked comfortable when we saw her this afternoon, and her stats continue to look great. They've already begun to reduce her sedatives to attempt to switch her to something less heavy-duty, so she'll likely be moving and drifting towards a waking state in the coming days. Kel and I'll be there tonight to check in on her... More on that as we know it.

Much love to you all!

xo Team JoJo